Identification of Management Information Base Object Identifiers Supported by a Managed Device

1. A network management system comprising: a storage device maintaining a database of MIBs loaded on the network management system; and a processor to: identify a subset of MIB object identifiers (OIDs) of interest from the MIBs loaded on the network management system to be tested for support by a managed device, transmit a series of requests to the managed device, the transmitting comprising: (1) transmitting an initial request to test the managed device for an initial OID of interest from the subset of OIDs of interest, (2) receiving a response to the initial request including an initial returned MIB OID, (3) determining that there are remaining MIB OIDs in the subset of interest that are lexicographically subsequent to the returned MIB OID, and (4) for each remaining MIB OID, transmitting a subsequent request including a MIB OID from the subset of MIB OIDs of interest that is lexicographically next with respect to a previous returned MIB OID included in a previous response; identify, based on each response to each request from the managed device: a first group of MIB OIDs in the subset of MIB OIDs of interest that are supported by the managed device, and a second group of MIB OIDs that are supported by the managed device, but are not loaded on the network management system; and enable the network management system to manage the managed device based on at least the identified first group of MIB OIDs.

2. The network management system of claim 1 , wherein, to identify the subset of MIB OIDs of interest, the processor identifies: a MIB root OID for each MIB loaded on the network management system, and a MIB OID for each MIB table in each MIB.

3. The network management system of claim 1 , wherein the initial request comprises a MIB root.

4. The network management system of claim 1 , the transmitting further comprising: (5) stopping transmission of requests when there are no remaining MIB OIDs in the subset of interest or when the previous response from the managed device indicates that there are no remaining MIB OIDs on the managed device.

5. The network management system of claim 1 , wherein: the determining further comprises determining that the returned MIB OID includes a prefix that is a predetermined extension point of interest; and transmitting the subsequent request comprises: (a) generating and transmitting the subsequent request including a lexicographically next child from the predetermined extension point when the previous returned MIB OID includes a prefix that is the predetermined extension point, and (b) generating and transmitting the subsequent request including the lexicographically next MIB OID from the subset of MIB OIDs of interest when the previous returned MIB OID does not include a prefix that is the predetermined extension point and there are remaining MIB OIDs.

6. The network management system of claim 1 , wherein, to identify the first group of MIB OIDs that are supported by the managed device, the processor: identifies the returned MIB OID included in the previous response from the managed device, determines whether at least one prefix of the returned MIB OID is present in the subset of MIB OIDs of interest, and adds a longest prefix to the first group of MIB OIDs that are supported by the managed device when at least one prefix of the returned MIB OID is present.

7. The network management system of claim 6 , wherein the processor: adds the previous returned MIB OID from the previous response to the second group of MIB OIDs that are supported by the managed device but not loaded on the network management system when no prefixes of the previous returned MIB OID are present in the subset of MIB OIDs of interest.

8. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a processor of a network management system to perform a method, the method, comprising: identifying, by the network management system, a subset of loaded MIB object identifiers (OIDs) of interest from MIBs loaded on the network management system to be tested for support by the managed device, transmitting, from the network management system, a series of requests to the managed device, the transmitting comprising: (1) transmitting an initial request to test the managed device for an initial OID of interest from the subset of OIDs of interest, (2) receiving a response to the initial request including an initial returned MIB OID (3) determining that there are remaining MIB OIDs in the subset of interest that are lexicographically subsequent to the returned MIB OID, and (4) for each remaining MIB OID, transmitting a subsequent request including a MIB OID from the subset of MIB OIDs of interest that is lexicographically next with respect to a previous returned MIB OID included in a previous response; identifying, based on each response to each request from the managed device: a first group of MIB OIDs in the subset of MIB OIDs of interest that are supported by the managed device, and a second group of MIB OIDs that are supported by the managed device, but are not loaded on the network management system; and enabling the network management system to manage the managed device based on at least the identified first group of MIB OIDs.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 8 , the method further comprising: displaying results identifying each MIB OID in the first group of MIBs and each MIB OID in the second group of MIBs.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein displaying the results further comprises displaying a selectable element for initiating a process to load a MIB from the second group of MIBs.

11. A method enabling a network management system to identify functions supported by a managed device, the method comprising: identifying, by the network management system, a subset of loaded MIB object identifiers (OIDs) of interest from MIBs loaded on the network management system to be tested for support by the managed device; transmitting, from the network management system, a series of requests to the managed device, the transmitting comprising: (1) transmitting an initial request to test the managed device for an initial OID of interest from the subset of OIDs of interest, (2) receiving a response to the initial request including an initial returned MIB OID (3) determining that there are remaining MIB OIDs in the subset of interest that are lexicographically subsequent to the returned MIB OID, and (4) for each remaining MIB OID, transmitting a subsequent request including a MIB OID from the subset of MIB OIDs of interest that is lexicographically next with respect to a previous returned MIB OID included in a previous response; identifying, based on each response to each request from the managed device: a first group of MIB OIDs in the subset of MIB OIDs of interest that are supported by the managed device, and a second group of MIB OIDs that are supported by the managed device, but are not loaded on the network management system; and enabling the network management system to manage the managed device based on at least the identified first group of MIB OIDs.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising: sorting the identified subset of loaded MIB OIDs in lexicographical order for use in selecting the OID included with each request.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein: the determining further comprises determining that the returned MIB OID includes a prefix that is a predetermined extension point; and transmitting the subsequent request comprises: (a) transmitting a next request including a lexicographically next branch from the predetermined extension point when the previous returned MIB OID includes a prefix that is the predetermined extension point; and (b) transmitting a next request including the lexicographically next MIB from the subset of loaded MIB OIDs when the previous returned MIB OID does not include a prefix that is the predetermined extension point and there are remaining MIB OIDs in the subset of loaded MIB OIDs to be tested that are lexicographically subsequent to the returned MIB OID.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein identifying the first group of MIB OIDs and the second group of MIB OIDs comprises, for each response: determining whether the returned MIB OID includes a matching prefix in the subset of loaded MIB OIDs to be tested; adding a longest matching MIB OID from the subset of loaded MIB OIDs to the first group of MIB OIDs when the returned MIB OID includes a matching prefix in the subset of loaded MIB OIDs; and adding the returned MIB OID to the second group of MIB OIDs when the returned MIB OID does not include a matching prefix in the subset of loaded MIB OIDs.